A very large class of synthetic alpha, beta-unsaturated compounds (e.g., methacrylate or acrylate monomers) has been identified, members of which have been shown, by the use of C14-labeled monomers, to become firmly bound to tumor cells and concomitantly to enhance the immunogenicity of the tumor. It is presumed that the alkyl side chain of the alpha, beta-unsaturated monomer serves as a hapten and thereby, as a function of the structure of the alkyl side chain, enhances the immunogenicity of the carrier protein to which the monomer is bound. A systematic investigation of the enhanced tumor immunogenicity produced by methacrylates which possess structurally different alkyl side chains is in progress. It has been found that direct intratumor injection of C14-benzyl methacrylate results in binding of the monomer to the tumor cells. It has also been found that direct intra-tumor injection of 2,4-dinitrophenyl methacrylate will elicit rejection, by the autochthonous host, of a number of the dimethyl benzanthracene induced tumors harbored by each animal. Human tumor cells, derived from cultivated tumor cell lines, have been made radioactive by incubation in vitro with C14-benzyl methycrylate, thus demonstrating that human tumors can also be alkylated with such immunogenic alpha, beta-unsaturated monomers. Currently methacrylates or maleimides (both of which are alpha, beta-unsaturated compounds) are being synthesized and tested for their ability to enhance the immunogenicity of tumors such that absolute immunity is produced in a high percentage of syngeneic recipients. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Immunogenicity of Tumors Alkylated with Cyclohexyl-, Benzyl- or 2.4-Dinitrophenyl Methacrylate. William N. Palmer, Jr., T. Leonard Swanson, George E. Moore and P.M. Hyde. Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1976.